The aftermath
by Cassiopeia's
Summary: A little continuation for the season finale, because how could I not?
1. 1

**The aftermath**

It seemed like he couldn't stop kissing her. Not that she had any objections to that. And god, the guy could kiss. He was tender and passionate all at once and Lisbon felt like flying. Her brain wasn't functioning, her belly was doing funny things and her lips and hands seemed to have only one purpose anymore: kiss and touch Patrick Jane.

She still couldn't really believe he'd actually done it, had really, finally told her how he felt about her. Honestly and truthfully. Patrick Jane loved her, was _in love _with her. God, she couldn't even begin to really understand.

"Less thinking, more kissing," he mumbled against her lips and caught her mouth once more. This time he was a little bolder, allowing his tongue to touch her lips, to invite himself into her warm, kissable mouth. Lisbon couldn't stop herself from moaning, curl her fingers into his blonde hair and only the stupid table between them was stopping her from jumping him.

Someone clearing their throat broke them apart and while Jane grinned happily at Abbot, Lisbon blushed furiously and couldn't manage to meet her boss' eyes.

"Hey there, Dennis. Thanks for picking us up," Jane greeted him, his wide smile almost splitting his face.

"Well, Jane, to be honest, I expected to find you moping instead of kissing Lisbon, though I must say I'm not entirely surprised." He smiled crookedly at them and even though Lisbon felt mortified to have been gotten caught making out with Jane, she was relieved Abbot didn't seem too mad about the trouble they had caused.

Figuring they needed to get a move on, she walked around the table and looked at her boss. "We might need to get him crutches. I don't think he can walk on his own."

Abbot nodded. "Well, TSA wasn't so fond of his romantic move and wanted me to punish you two for your unprofessional behavior in order to let him go. So since you are off duty for the next three days, I suggest you take him to a hospital as soon as we land in Austin."

Lisbon blushed again, while Jane seemed to be quite excited about the prospect of three free days.

"Alright people, let's get a move on. Agent Fisher is waiting for us."

Lisbon and Abbot quickly decided to hold Jane up, one from each side and helped him to the waiting plane.

"So, Lisbon, still around I see?!" Kim Fisher grinned suggestively at her at and Lisbon felt her cheeks heat up again.

"Yes, as it turned out, I'd rather stay with you guys," she quickly answered and Fisher grinned knowingly at her.

"Sure, I'm glad."

Lisbon sat down between Fisher and Jane, who had a cooling pack on his ankle.

"You ready to play nurse for me?", he asked, grinning mischievously and before taking her hand and intertwining their fingers.

Lisbon blushed again, felt her heart beating ridiculously hard in her chest because even though Abbot had actually witnessed their kissing and Fisher seemed to be all but unaware of what had happened between her and Jane, too, she still felt a little embarrassed about all this public display of Jane's unexpected affection.

"I'm tired," Jane mumbled before putting his head on her shoulder and closing his eyes.

Lisbon closed hers as well, even if merely to just process as privately as possible what the hell had happened over the last weeks, especially during the last few hours.

After Jane had come back to the states she had hoped once everything was settled, he would finally say or do something that would take their relationship to the next level.  
Then Marcus had started pursuing her and because Jane hadn't indicated anything else, she'd thought he just wasn't interested. So she'd started dating Marcus, which had been fun and sweet at first. But then he had become so pushy and fast and while she had quite liked him, she'd still been in love with Jane and things had gotten really out of hand then.

And now, instead of flying to DC to her fiancé for god's sake, she was sitting in a plane back to Austin with Jane's hand in hers and her lips still tasting like him and if she was being honest, she hadn't felt like that in well, forever. She was entirely and truly happy and just so very much in love with this annoying, unbelievably frustrating guy that she couldn't fight the smile off her face for even a second.

* * *

She must have dozed off too, probably because of the emotional rollercoaster she'd been riding on for the last several months, because when she woke it was because Patrick Jane was gently stroking her face, before pecking her lips.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty. We're about to land."

Her mind still foggy and note quite aware of her surroundings, she pressed her face into Jane's warm neck and he wrapped his arms around her instantly.

"You alright?", he asked quietly.

"Mhm," she mumbled back, finally fully waking up. She looked around nervously when the events of the last few hours finally came back to her and couldn't help but gaze cautiously at Jane.

"Hey," he greeted quietly, unable to hide the love and affection he felt fir her and Lisbon's heart started beating madly when she realized he wasn't masking his feelings any longer.

"Hey yourself," she whispered back, her heart almost jumping into her throat when his eyes, so unbelievably blue-greenish, flicked down to her lips, before he leaned forward to press his mouth against hers.

His lips were soft and gentle, yet taking everything from her and Lisbon had to fight hard to stop an embarrassing moan from escaping her. She quickly freed herself, blushed furiously when she realized Abbot and Fisher were keenly avoiding looking at them.

"Jane," she admonished, "behave. We aren't off work yet."

He just grinned, not embarrassed in the slightest and Lisbon figured, working with Jane was going to be even more challenging from now on.

* * *

Somehow they ended up in Jane's airstream. After taking him to the hospital where he'd been the same terrible patient as always, the doctor had sent them on their way. His ankle was just twisted, so he'd gotten a pair of crutches and was sent home.

"I'm hungry," he'd complained in the car, so Lisbon had picked up some takeout and had driven to his airstream.

Jane seemed to get tired again and she figured she'd have to tuck him in soon. Her nerves were still a little fluttery, but all in all she had a grip on herself again. So, she and Jane were dating now, had caused quite the scene and everybody, except for Marcus, was aware of their changed relationship status.

Oh god, she really had to talk to Marcus. He was probably at the airport, waiting for her. Had her original plane already landed?

"What's wrong, my dear?", Jane suddenly asked, noticing that she'd stopped eating.

She bit her lip, not quite knowing what to say. I'm so sorry I'm hurting Marcus? It had been a really emotional day for all of them, so she didn't want to ruin the mood.

"I need to call Marcus," she said quietly, not daring to meet Jane's eyes, but he surprised her when he gently took hold of her hand.

"Look, I know you felt something for him and that you hate to hurt him and I know this is all my fault because I've been too much of a coward to tell you how I feel long before you and him even met, but he is a good guy. And therefore I think he deserves a proper explanation because no matter what you say, I'm positive he wants to marry you."

Instantly guilt overflowed her and she looked down at their clasped hands. "He asked me to marry him," she admitted quietly, "I said no at first because things were just going too fast, but after you tricked be today, I called him to say yes."

She felt Jane's fingers freeze in hers for a moment and when she looked up, his eyes were glassy.

"I came so close to losing you, Teresa. What kind of idiot am I?"

She squeezed his hand reassuringly, before slowly standing up. "I need to make a call now," she told him and he nodded, smiling encouragingly at her.

* * *

"Hey sweetheart, where are you? I've left you dozens of messages." Marcus' voice sounded soft and concerned and she felt even worse for doing this to him.

She'd seen his messages before she had called him, and god, she couldn't even imagine how hurt he'd feel any minute now. Not knowing where to start, she stayed quiet for a minute, which was apparently long enough for Marcus to figure things out.

"You aren't coming, are you?", he asked and the worst was, beneath the hurt she could detect resignation. As if he had anticipated this.

Her heart beating a mile a minute, she slowly forced herself to answer. "I'm so sorry, Marcus. It was never my intention to hurt you and I really thought we could have something. I wanted us to be something, but I…," she trailed off, tears streaming down her face. She had cried so much today and in this little love-triangle she'd created, everybody had gotten hurt so very bad.

"The heart wants what it wants, right?", Marcus said quietly, and she agreed, her sobs barely audible.

"I wish you the best, Marcus. You are a great man and you deserve someone who can give you her whole heart. I'm sorry this can't be me."

"Take care, sweetheart. And tell him I hope he knows what he lucky bastard he is." He hung up after that and then the dam broke for a second time today and she couldn't stop her tears any longer.

* * *

When she reentered Jane's airstream, she found him sitting on his bed, his suit jacket thrown over a chair and his shirt open. Seeing his naked chest and belly, did really bad things to her stomach and she paused for a minute.  
How could she have thought, getting over him was even an option?

When he noticed her, he flashed her another blinding smile, before extending his hand and pulling her towards him.

Lisbon stumbled a little and almost choked when she found herself on his lap, straddling him. After all these years of longing, finally being intimate with him felt surreal and kind of awkward.

"I can't believe it either," he murmured, his fingers caressing her face gently before he leaned forward to nudge his nose tenderly against hers. "I've been in love with you for so long, but I never even once considered this day would actually come."

Lisbon nodded, losing herself in his eyes and scent. The urge to kiss him was getting stronger with every second, but she couldn't bring herself to be the one how crossed the line, especially since they were sitting so intimately now.

Nervously, she bit her lip, unable to stop her eyes from flicking down to his lips multiple times. Jane's grip on her waist tightened and seemingly unconsciously, he pulled her flush against him. Without really knowing she did it, Lisbon wrapped her arms around his neck, her hands slowly knotting themselves into his curls. Her face was hovering right over his, they were so close, their lips almost touching. Jane's eyes became darker and suddenly the love which had been evident in his gaze for hours now, vanished. Instead she could see unmasked lust and passion and instantly her belly was flooded by arousal.

Then things happened pretty quickly. Jane's hands wandered up her back, pulling her down so that her mouth crashed into his while he simultaneously pushed her down into his lap, so that she could feel his hard length right between her legs.

A moan escaped them both, the kids got heated and passionate rather fast and it didn't take very long until Lisbon felt his hands at them hem of her shirt, pulling it up over her head.

Taking this as her cue to take things further, she pushed his open shirt down his shoulders before she lost herself in another mind-blowing kiss.

* * *

When she woke up, it had to be rather early. Lisbon felt Jane's arms wrapped around her, his hands intertwined with hers on her belly. Even though she was afraid things might be awkward once they were both awake and coherent, she couldn't stop the content smile that was stretching on her features.  
Stroking his hands gently with her fingers, Lisbon suddenly felt the familiar cold metal around his ring finger and panic crept over her.

What if he really wasn't ready for this? She believed him that he loved her, she really did, but that didn't mean he had to be ready to actually act on his feelings. What if he felt like he was betraying Angela? What if he needed more time? Would she be able to wait again? Was she willing to? And how long would it take? Would he ever be ready?

Overwhelmed with doubt, she removed his arms from around herself and grabbed her clothes. For once, Jane actually slept and she thanked god for that. Quickly, she grabbed a pen and paper to leave him a note, before vanishing the airstream, hoping she had done the right thing.

_Jane,  
I'm sorry if you are confused or hurt to find me next to you anymore and believe me, I'd have rather stayed with you, too, but I think we both need a little space to process things.  
I believed you when you said you loved me, but I fear once you really understand that I'm not leaving you'll realize you aren't ready for this. Don't get me wrong, loving and missing your family is something I'd never want you to stop, but I need to be loved equally. To be honest, after Red John I hoped you'd be able to remove your ring, but you're still wearing it. I want you to be committed to this, to really want this and not force yourself to do this, to be with me, because you think I'm leaving. Because I'm won't. Texas is my home now. Even if you decide you aren't ready or might never be, I won't leave, but I need to know where I stand with you.  
So once you figure that out and decide you're ready to face the consequences of this decision you have to make, you know where to find me.  
With all my love,  
Teresa_


	2. 2

**Hello folks, **

**because so many of you wanted me to continue this, this has become a two-shot. So here's the second chapter to this. **

* * *

Sunlight was slowly worming its way through his eyelids. He couldn't remember when he'd last slept past dawn. But then again, he hadn't been this exhausted in over a decade. Or well, maybe he had been, but for other reasons. Reasons, which had rather caused insomnia than blissful sleep.

He couldn't stop the smile that was creeping up his face. Finally he had been brave enough to tell her how he felt. Had felt for years.  
Well, it might have been under really pressured circumstances and if he was being honest, in a rather embarrassing way, but nothing was ever really normal with him, was it?

Now, feeling awake enough to actually open his eyes, he turned around and froze. Next to him wasn't the brunette, beautiful woman he'd expected there to be, but the cold, white sheet. Her smell being the only evidence this had really happened.

He felt cold and nauseous when he realized Lisbon had fled the bed and obviously the airstream, too. After quickly scanning the room, he noticed that all of her things had vanished a well.

Lisbon had run off.

"Damn it," he cursed, quickly leaving his bed and fishing for his boxers. He hissed in pain when his weight pressed down on his ankle. But this was more important. He would swallow the pain for now. Throwing on a shirt, he decided to hurry. Maybe he could still catch up with her and ask what the hell was going on because he had no freaking clue.

Everything had been great between them last night. They had established they both loved each other, she hadn't gone to DC and their coworkers had been fine with this new developed aspect to their relationship. They had come to the airstream, hat kissed and made love, quite thoroughly if he dared to say so, before falling content, sated and happy asleep in each other's arms. So what the hell had caused her to run?

About to dash out of the airstream, he noticed a note on the door.

_Jane,  
I'm sorry if you are confused or hurt not to find me next to you anymore and believe me, I'd have rather stayed with you, too, but I think we both need a little space to process things.  
I believed you when you said you loved me, but I fear once you really understand that I'm not leaving you'll realize you aren't ready for this. Don't get me wrong, loving and missing your family is something I'd never want you to stop, but I need to be loved equally. To be honest, after Red John I hoped you'd be able to remove your ring, but you're still wearing it. I want you to be committed to this, to really want this and not force yourself to do this, to be with me, because you think I'm leaving. Because I won't. Texas is my home now. Even if you decide you aren't ready or might never be, I won't leave, but I need to know where I stand with you.  
So once you figure that out and decide you're ready to face the consequences of this decision you have to make, you know where to find me.  
With all my love,  
Teresa_

His heart beat madly in his chest and he took a few shaking breathes to calm himself.  
So, Teresa Lisbon really didn't understand what she meant to him. She didn't realize there was no turning back for him. He loved her, period. To be honest, he hadn't thought about his wedding band for weeks and he was sure he wouldn't have for quite some time. He had truly forgotten he was even wearing it.  
After he'd come back to the states, he had packed a small box which contained most of those little reminders of his previous life and he couldn't remember why he hadn't taken off his ring and packed it as well.

But seriously, was this stupid piece of jewelry actually the reason why Lisbon had run off? Obviously, she hadn't exactly understood him when he'd confessed his feelings, because to him it meant that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and he was pretty sure of that. He really didn't need another freaking second to think about that!

Clutching the note in his hand, he ran out of his home to make his way to Teresa Lisbon to make sure she had no doubt of his intensions ever again.

* * *

Gently massaging the shampoo into her hair, she felt of the stress leave her body. The hot water was doing wonders to her strained muscles, to her tired mind and she planned on actually using the next two days to relax a little and take care of herself, even though Abbot clearly had had other things in mind when he had "suspended" them for three days. She still blushed when she remembered his grin upon having caught Jane and her making out. Well, this clearly wasn't going to happen again anytime soon.

Jane needed a little time and while she loved him dearly, she couldn't be a second choice.

Washing her hair out, she rubbed her hands over her face a few times and was about to turn off the water, when all of a sudden the curtain of her shower was harshly pulled aside and an angry looking Patrick Jane stood right in front of her.

"Jane!", she shrieked, "are you insane? What the hell?" Lisbon couldn't even say what exactly she was feeling right now because there was embarrassment, shame, anger and confusion.

What the hell was he thinking, breaking into her home (which wasn't exactly anything new) and invading her privacy like that? She was in her shower, naked, for god's sake!

Which wasn't really his main concern obviously, because he threw a piece of paper angrily at her.

"Yeah, what the hell? You want me to be committed to this? Well, as it turns out, apparently I've got more reason to doubt _your _commitment."

What?

Grabbing her towel from besides him, she wrapped herself up modestly before frowning at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You are the one that fled my bed today. Instead of waking me up and just talk to me, you ran off. So I think I am the one that should be worried about your commitment."

Lisbon blushed first, then paled and blushed again. He thought…what?

Shaking her head to clear it, she slowly said: "Jane, I just need you to be sure about this. And I can't be with you, knowing I'm just your second choice."

He stared at her and Lisbon started feeling uncomfortable.

"Why can't you see that you are not? I told you I loved you and I meant that, but apparently you don't really understand what that means." He became agitated and Lisbon was already moving to lay a soothing hand on his arm, but he just shrugged her off and continued.

"So I figure I need to make things plainly obvious for you: I love you, I want you. When we make love there's no one else I see or think about. When I'm imagining my future, I only see you by my side. When I read or hear something, anything, my first thought is: what would Lisbon say to that? You are my first thought when I wake up and my last one before I go to sleep. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So if you think in order to really believe me and agree to that, I need to take off my ring or propose to you or shout it all from the rooftop of the FBI-building, so be it. I don't care. I just don't want to wake up without you next to me ever again. Is that clear enough for you now?"

He was breathing heavily when he finished. His pupils were dilated and he felt sweaty. Lisbon felt tears streaming down her face, her heart beat madly in her chest and _wow_, Patrick Jane felt exactly the same way as her. He felt like she thought he never would. So instead of bothering to come up with an equally romantic answer to his amazing speech, she just let go of the towel which was still wrapped around her and stepped forward to launch herself into his arms.

* * *

When Lisbon woke up for the second time today, she panicked again, but this time for different reasons, because she was naked in a bed while her left hand was cuffed to the bedpost.

Her heart pounded wildly, but before she could start on freeing herself, her brain caught up to the fact that this was her bed and that a sleeping, equally naked man was lying next to her. Calming down, she turned around to wake Jane.

"Are you crazy? Why did you cuff me?"

At that her former consultant grinned, sleepily and amazingly sweet, and god, she loved him. She really, really loved him.

"Just wanted to make sure you wouldn't leave me again."

And even though this was crazy, insane and so annoyingly Jane-ish that Lisbon couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Don't worry, baby. I'm not leaving you ever again." And with that she pulled him closer until he was on top of her, pressing his body against hers and showing her yet again that she really had no reason to doubt the love and want he felt for her.


End file.
